Beer making has been practiced for many years. Sugars are extracted from malted grains through a process called mashing. The sugars are boiled with hops, and the resultant wort is fermented with yeast. There are many styles of beers, each of which has is its particular character. The characteristics of a beer may be affected by many different adjustments of the mashing process, the boiling process, yeast characteristics, as well as other changes to the brewing process.
Automated or semi-automated beer brewing systems may have programmable controls for all or some portion of a brewing procedure. Some such systems may automate some or all of the mashing procedure, others may automate some or all of the boiling procedure. Such systems may include systems commonly known as recirculating infusion mash systems (RIMS) heat exchanger recirculating mash systems (HERMS), and others.
A typical characteristic of such automated or semi-automated beer brewing systems is that a programmable controller may execute a recipe program that may define a portion of the brewing process. For example, a system with automated mashing may follow a mash schedule that may heat water, add the heated water to grains, and control the temperature of the water/grain mash. In many cases, such a mashing schedule may hold at a first temperature for a designated time, adjust the temperature to a second temperature and hold for a second time, and so on. In the case of mashing, each temperature and hold time may cause certain enzymes to break down starches in the grains into different types of sugars, as well as other reactions. These reactions may cause different taste effects to occur in the resulting beer.